Twenty years of university-graduated osteopaths in Belgium: A cross-sectional survey

David Zarka, Christian Denaeyer, Ludivine Lahaeye, Walid Salem and Ana Bengoetxea

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Background: In 2004, the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) launched Europe’s first comprehensive university‑based osteopathy program, a six‑year curriculum intended to set an international standard for training osteopaths in the primary care management of functional musculoskeletal pain and disorders. This study describes the socio‑professional profile of ULB‑trained osteopaths in Belgium by graduation cohort. Methods: All contactable ULB graduates (n = 277; 83.9%) were invited to complete a voluntary, online cross‑sectional survey (49 items) disseminated via cohort‑personalized institutional emails between February and April 2024. Descriptive statistics were produced, and associations with time since graduation were examined. Results: A total of 156 graduates responded (56.3%), of whom 148 (94.9%) reported currently practicing as osteopaths. Respondents were predominantly female (60.9%) and aged 25–34 years (77.5%). Most practiced in French‑speaking Belgium (75.5%), while 17.6% worked abroad. The majority were full‑time self‑employed (92.6%), working in private offices (66.7%) and in multidisciplinary settings (68.6%), including private (53.2%) and public (15.4%) institutions. With increasing time since graduation, the number of concurrent workplaces decreased (p

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0359658 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 59658&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0359658

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0359658

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().